Use of a semipermeable polyamide dressing over skin grafts to venous leg ulcers.

A polyamide semipermeable mesh interface placed over a skin graft allows absorption of exudate and soaking of the graft with an antiseptic solution. Forty-five patients with large venous leg ulcers (more than 100 cm2) were treated by a split skin graft covered by a polyamide mesh. The mean time to healing and graft take was compared with those of a similar group of 30 patients whose graft was not protected by an interface. The mesh significantly shortened the mean time for complete healing from 41 to 32 days.